Chapter 10: Revelations

It was the most perfect day for a swim, Padme noted to herself as she carried Leia out on the deck outside her suite. The air was warm, meaning the water would feel nice and cool. She looked out at the lake, which was calm as there was no breeze. The entire scene was very serene and calming, something she needed.

As she walked to the edge of the lake, she looked at the empty beach across from her. The mansion she had stayed in last time had been torn down. Sheltay had informed her they were going to build a new structure that would be larger and mirror the palace they were in now. Remembering that old mansion, she thought about the moments she had shared with Anakin there. She almost started crying as she thought about how magical everything had been, at least concerning their relationship. She had been in a bad place because of the invasion and occupation of her planet, but the joy Anakin brought her had made her forget all that. Now, it was her relationship with Anakin she was trying to put out of her mind. As she stared at the demolished palace, she found it fitting that it had been torn down.

When Padme planted her feet in the water, she had to force it to stay in as the water felt incredibly cold. It didn't take long to acclimate, and she was able to take a few more steps out. When she was up to her waist, she could see her reflection in the water. She smiled at her mirror image, as she was pleased to be back to her normal self. When she reached Alderaan, Sheltay had arranged for a couple beauticians to come out to the lake retreat. They stripped the dye from her hair, returning it to its normal color. They also gave her hair extensions to return it to its normal length and removed the dye from her eyes. She felt bad spending a day to get pampered in the midst of turmoil, but she wanted to look like her old self again. She knew it would be good if she was able to find Anakin and talk to him.

Padme's mind was brought back to the present by the sound of Leia laughing as she kicked at the water. "Don't worry, I didn't forget about your swimming lesson." She knelt down in the water as she held Leia out and away from her. The girl seemed fascinated by the water. Leia realized this was much different than any bath she had taken. Like Anakin, she had never seen such a large body of water and was excited about it. When Padme submerged her to her chest, she slapped at the water with her hands, laughing so loud it echoed all around them.

"Okay, let's try some swimming." Padme simply moved Leia around in the water, careful to keep her head above it. The child continued to laugh and coo as she loved the feeling of moving through the water.

As Padme moved Leia through the water, her mind wandered back to the attempted swimming lesson she had given to Anakin all those years ago. It hadn't been much of a lesson, but it was still a magical moment. Anakin had used the Force to create a whirlpool that extended from the surface of the water to bottom of the lake. Padme was astounded by the power he was showing. More importantly, the whirlpool gave them the privacy they needed to finally share their first kiss. It was a moment Padme would never forget, and she still cherished it, despite what Anakin had become.

Her daydreaming ended when Leia splashed water in her face. Leia was laughing heartily, and Padme shared the laugh with her. Given that she was taking so well to the water, Padme decided to really push the swimming lesson forward.

"Okay now, hold your breath." Padme dipped Leia so low in the water that her mouth and nose were submerged. Leia immediately started crying as she did not like that one bit. Padme knew she had gotten a little too ambitious and held the baby close to her to try and sooth her.

"It's okay. Mommy's here. I went a little too far, but I won't do it again." She bounced the baby up and down, but that didn't help alleviate her crying at all.

With Leia apparently fearful of the water, Padme thought it was best to get out of the water and take a breather. When she turned to the shore, she could see Bail standing on the deck. She waved to him as she started walking towards him.

...

When Bail arrived on Alderaan, he headed directly to the Lake Retreat. His heart was pounding as he took the transport there. He was anxious to talk with Padme. The two of them had so much to discuss he had no idea where he would even begin with her.

When the transport landed, Bail raced out of it and down to the palace. He ran around the halls until he came upon a protocol droid and asked him if he knew where Padme was staying. He did, as he explained he had been serving the woman for years. He told him right where to go, and Bail raced down to the room. He was surprised to find the door open and ran inside, worried what might have happened. He calmed down when he saw Padme out in the water with a baby that he figured must be Winter. He didn't think much of Sheltay letting Padme take her daughter out into the lake.

Walking out on the deck, he could see that Padme was heading to the shore. She smiled and waved at him when she saw him. The smile stayed on her face the closer she got. As she stepped out of the water, Bail could see she was wearing one of Sheltay's bikinis. He couldn't help but notice she looked fantastic in it. She was thin and fit, just like Sheltay.

While Winter knew Bail well, the baby in Padme's arms looked at him skeptically. She didn't like the sight of him for some reason and started getting fussy.

"It's okay, Leia," Padme said in a high-pitched baby voice. "He's friendly." She gave the baby a kiss as she held her close to soothe her.

"For a moment, I thought you were holding Winter." Bail was thoroughly confused where the baby had come from.

"Uh, no. This I Leia, my baby daughter." The girl seemed to trust her mother and smiled and cooed as she looked at Bail.

"Your daughter?" Bail's mouth was agape in shock. "I. . .I didn't even know you were pregnant." He couldn't help but shake his head. "It's been a while since I've seen you, I never thought you would have met someone and had a child in that timespan."

"She's actually as old as Winter." Padme's voice was full of weariness, as if a heavy weight had descended upon her. Bail almost asked about it, but he noticed Padme had nodded to someone over his shoulder. Wanting to see who it was, he turned around. Standing behind him was Sheltay. She was wearing a bikini and holding Winter.

As Bail looked back to Padme, he started doing the math about the ages of the two babies. "If your daughter is as old as Winter-" Bail's voice trailed off as he thought about the implications.

"Hold on, we can discuss this." Padme walked past him and said something to Sheltay. The two of them went inside the suite. Padme was gone just a second before she returned without her daughter. She was carrying a cover-up and slipped it on as she walked back up to Bail.

"I take you guessed I must have been about four months pregnant when everything went to hell in the galaxy, and I went missing." she began.

"Um, yes. I don't need to know the identity of the father. It really isn't that important."

"No, it is important." Padme crossed her arms over her chest as she stared stoically at Bail and let out a deep sigh. "The father of my baby is Anakin Skywalker."

"I should have guessed that," Bail said as he shook his head.

Padme looked across the lake as she let out a sigh. "While the two of us formed a connection on Tatooine, it was here where we really fell in love. Our stations in life made an open relationship impossible, but we got married in secret after the Battle of Naboo and spent every moment together that we could." Getting emotional, Padme had to wipe a tear away from her eye. She found herself unable to say anything more.

Bail thought he understood what was making her so emotional. "I can understand how tough it must be for you to talk about this. I'm sorry to make you bring up all these memories. I can't imagine the sorrow you must have experienced when Anakin died in the purge of the Jedi."

Padme shook her head as she let out another sigh. "He didn't die, he is still very much alive." She continued looking off in the distance.

"He's alive?" Bail was excited to learn the most powerful Jedi he had ever known was still alive. "Where is he? He could do so much for the resistance."

"He's Vader." Padme's voice was so low he could barely make out what she said. He still heard the name distinctly, but he couldn't believe it. He stayed silent for a moment as his mind took a while to process what it meant.

"Vader?" Bail couldn't say anything more as he was too stunned. With Bail silent, Padme told him how Damask had revealed himself as Plagueis and told her about Anakin's turn to the dark side. She didn't reveal how she made it off Geonosis. She skipped right to how she fled to Tatooine, where Anakin's family lived. It was there that she gave birth to not one child, but two. There was a boy she had left with Anakin's family.

"All I need to do now is find Anakin," Padme said as she glared at Bail. "If I can find him, I believe I can get him to remember the man he used to be. I can get him to turn back to the Light Side of the Force, and everything can go back to the way it was."

Bail sighed, as he didn't know how to tell Padme everything she had said was impossible. She might have known Anakin better than anyone, but as Vader he was a completely different person. Bail had read all the reports about his exploits. He read about all his actions that weren't reported in the news. What the man did was so horrid that Bail found it hard to believe he could ever turn back to being the man he once was. Besides that, ever reaching Anakin was impossible. He was surrounded by soldiers at almost all times. Meanwhile, Padme had an important role she could play in his planned resistance, if she would just decide to put all her effort into it instead of worrying about the impossible task of turning Vader. He knew Thrawn had a plan he wanted him to carry out, he just wanted to know if Padme was a part of it."

"Turning Vader, to me, that sounds like an impossible task." Bail shook his head several times as he talked. He considered telling her Vader would never turn back but thought it would be much more convincing if he explained how talking to him alone could never happen. "He is the second most powerful man in the Empire, he is surrounded by soldiers, aides, or bodyguards at all times. There is no way you could find him alone."

"it's a chance I need to take. I am willing to risk being discovered."

"You can't do that," Bail raised his voice as he spoke. "If you were to do that, the Emperor will figure out Thrawn helped you escape." Padme seemed mildly surprised Bail had figured that out. "You might not know it, but Thrawn has been doing much to help a resistance get put in place before he leaves." Upon hearing that, Padme's eyes grew wide in shock as she had not been expecting to hear that.

"How do you know about what Thrawn has been doing?"

"He came to talk to me and told me, although he didn't tell me about you. He said he wanted a resistance, because he was afraid Palpatine would attempt to conquer his region of the galaxy, and-"

"He wanted a resistance that would be a thorn in his side and prevent Palpatine from doing so," Padme finished Bail's sentence for him.

"So, he told you the same things he told me." Bail paused as he realized Padme was the person he was referring to in the cryptic message he had given him. "Was there anything more he told you. Were you in hiding because of some plan he has?"

"Yes, and no," Padme replied. "He wanted me in hiding so that no one would find out he had let me escape, but I wasn't doing anything to help out any resistance groups."

Bail rubbed his goatee as he thought for a moment. "He has certainly been taking a great risk by helping many of us like this. He came to talk to me a couple days ago. He was urging me to sponsor this law the Emperor wants and trying to convince me to do so on the basis it would actually be good for the resistance."

"What's the law the Emperor wants to pass?"

"He wants a law that will allow him to appoint regional governors which will have power over the planetary leaders. It will centralize government in a revolutionary way."

Padme scoffed upon hearing about the law. "Certainly, you must have told Thrawn you could never sponsor, or even support this legislation."

Bail swallowed hard as he didn't want to answer Padme. "The truth is, Thrawn convinced me that this bill would truly be good for the resistance." Padme's eyes grew wide once again as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "He convinced me this is an accelerationist move. Palpatine is making a mistake and overreaching. The power exerted by these governors is just going to push more leaders to oppose the Empire. It will be just the kind of overreach we need to build the resistance."

"This is the exact consolidation of power Palpatine wants," Padme was incredulous. "Don't you realize Thrawn was playing you. He was pretending to be on the side of the resistance so you would just do what Palpatine wants you to do."

"Thrawn is truly on our side. The fact you are alive proves that."

Padme felt dejected as she realized he had a point, but it was still confusing what was happening. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. The galaxy had become undecipherable to her, and she sometimes wondered if Owen had been right. She never should have believed she could do anything to alter the course of the galaxy, as she had no idea how it ended up on the path it did. Perhaps she should have just worried about raising her children, and letting the galaxy settle itself on its own.

"I wish I could stay and talk about this with you more," Bail sounded dejected as he talked. "I thought I would be able to spend some time here, but the Emperor has called me back to Coruscant. He wants me to work with Vader to speak to as many senators as we can and sell them on this bill. He wants us to whip up votes for it."

"You're going to be working with my husband on this." Bail winced as he suddenly realized mentioning Vader was a mistake. He knew what was coming and he started to think how he could counter it. "You could take me with you. Then get Anakin to meet with you alone, but you will really be giving me a chance to meet with him alone."

"That will never work, Padme." Bail was screaming as he gestured. "Vader is too far gone to change. You should see the things I have of what he has done. He is every bit the tyrant that Palpatine is, maybe even more. You have to face the fact you never really knew him."

Bail ran away as he did not want to speak to her anymore. He radioed Captain Antilles to get his shuttle ready so he could fly directly to Coruscant. He didn't care what Padme thought, he had a plan in place he was going to carry out, and if she didn't want to be a part of it, so be it. He was just hoping she wouldn't end up doing anything that would jeopardize what he had planned.

...

"The insolence displayed by Prime Minister Satine Kryz on Mandalore cannot be allowed to repeat." Vader's voice was full of fury as he related his tale to the legislators gathered in Palpatine's office. As he was wearing his Sith mask to hide his identity, no one could see the facial expressions he was making. That meant he had to convey all his emotions through his voice, as he had become accustomed to over the past few years. "The official Separatist movement might have been eradicated, but it is apparent it's spirit lives on. Planetary leaders still do not believe they must follow the dictates of the central government. When the Empire was instituted, planetary leaders were allowed to retain their autonomy with the understanding the needs of the Empire reigned supreme, but it is clear most of them do not want to follow orders or directives. Their authority needs to be usurped with an additional layer of bureaucracy. If we do not do this, we will find ourselves facing the same level of chaos and disorder we just fought a war to prevent."

"It appears Lord Vader might not have been quite as articulate as he could be," Bail began as he took over. "Perhaps I can better explain the need for this legislation, which I am enthusiastically sponsoring. No one wants a permanent dictatorship, but neither can we have the chaos of individual autonomy we face now. That is why this law is so imperative. We need regional governors to serve as a conduit between the central government and the planetary leadership. The act we are seeking to pass ensures the laws and directives passed by legislators such as us are followed at the local level. It does this while keeping the Emperor from exerting direct control over every system of the galaxy. These regional governors will be independent bureaucrats who will neither do everything the Emperor wants, nor everything the planetary leaders want."

"How can we be certain the governors will truly be independent if they will be appointed by the Emperor himself?" one of the senators, Mon Mothma, asked.

"I am glad you brought this up. While they will be appointed by the Emperor, they will need to be confirmed by the Senate. We are going to have to do our jobs to ensure that we only accept men and women who will act independently."

For once, Vader was glad he was wearing a mask, as it meant no one was able to see the smile on his face. He found it humorous Bail would use the selling point of Senate approval as a guarantee of the Grand Moff's independence. He had already promised Palpatine he would do everything he could to get his appointees through the Senate with no questions asked.

"The fact the Senate has the privilege of confirming the Grand Moffs just proves how this is simply adding another layer of checks and balances to our government." Bail was starting to move around the room as he tried to close the deal. "The Senate is not going anywhere. This law more than any other will ensure that democracy is upheld in this galaxy."

Bail was so good that the senators listening seemed like they were ready to stand up and clap. They were experienced legislators who knew how to keep their composure. One-by-one, they gave Bail and Vader their promise they would vote in favor of the legislation.

Once the group was gone, Palpatine joined them and they tallied the guaranteed votes they had. It was enough to pass the law, with a substantial margin. Their task was completed.

"After it passes the Senate, we will need to have a public signing the media can broadcast to the citizens," Palpatine said. "Bail, as sponsor, you will be right behind me as I sign the bill. Then, lined up behind you, I will have the men I am going to appoint to be the very first Grand Moffs of the Empire. I want to move quickly on their confirmation and getting their names out to the media will help start the process."

As Vader listened to them, he couldn't help but notice the Emperor had not mentioned his name. "Master, earlier you told me that I would have my public unveiling along with that of the Grand Moffs. Am I to be a part of this public signing?"

"Once again, my apprentice, I believe it would not be the right time. The news is going to be full with the details of this law and the appointment of the Grand Moffs. If we introduce you at this time, the story of your unveiling will be buried. When you are introduced to the public, it should be at a time where you will be the only thing people will be talking about. That time will come soon, don't worry."

Vader had to keep his emotions in check as he knew the Emperor would be able to sense them. He was furious at first, but quickly calmed down as he made an important decision. It was time for him to stop following everything Palpatine wanted. Obi-Wan needed to be killed, and if that eliminated the specter of the Jedi, so be it. If Palpatine was truly going to be busy with the passing of this law and the appointment of the Grand Moffs, then he would not notice if Vader slipped away to Mustafar to face his former master.

...

Padme stayed back as she watched Leia playing with Winter. The two children got along remarkably well, and Padme had a feeling she knew why. For Leia, Winter was a substitute for her brother. While Winter didn't understand how much Leia meant to her, she understood the girl was a good friend to play with.

The two girls were rolling a ball back and forth between them. At one point, Winter lost control of it and it rolled over to where her mother was sitting. Sheltay grabbed it and carried it over to them, joining in their little game and making it a threesome.

As Padme watched the three playing, her mind drifted to politics. She had just read the news that the Senate had passed the law instituting the office of Grand Moff, with Bail at is primary sponsor. Padme had been unable to believe he would do such a thing. He was trying to prove he was loyal to Palpatine, but what he was mostly doing was proving he was disloyal to any resistance groups. She wondered how he would ever be able to lead a resistance with all the baggage he had accrued.

Knowing the livestream of the public signing was due to start soon, she started to walk out to go and watch it. As she did so, Bail's wife, Breha, nearly ran right into her as she made her way into the room. She had arrived shortly after Bail left. Padme believed she was there to babysit her and make sure she didn't leave to do anything rash.

"Padme, I was just coming to get you."

"Is it because of the public signing of the Grand Moff law? I was just going to go and watch it."

"No, we just had a very interesting arrival. Someone just appeared in a Sith ship."

Padme's eyes grew wide and she started trembling as she thought about the implications. "It's Satine Kryz," Bail's wife told her, oblivious to what she was thinking.

Padme instantly recognized the name, as it had been all over the news. "How did she escape off Mandalore?"

"That is what we have to hear. Satine is being brought here so we can talk to her."